I am a PhD student in Sociology at Loyola University Chicago. I received my BA in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016 and MA in Sociology from Loyola University Chicago in 2019. My Master's thesis explored the nature and role of Christian identity in how 13 American college students understand and construct their national identity. I have presented this study at the 2021 Midwest Sociological Society annual meeting and the 12th Annual Graduate School Interdisciplinary Research Symposium at Loyola. This study was later published with The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society, titled "The Separation of Religious and National Identity among American Youth." This paper won the 2022 departmental Robert McNamara Award for outstanding paper on sociology of religion.

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My research interests include religion, social movement, deviance and social control, social justice, and public sociology. My current research agenda comprises of two projects: religious memes as a way for excommunicated members to stay connected to their faith, and religious expression in the 2019 Hong Kong social movement. I am partial to qualitative methods including in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation, and content analysis, though I am also interested in mixed methods that combine elements of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

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I am experienced working with undergraduate students and graduate students. I have taught two college-level courses, served as a peer mentor to fellow graduate students, a judge at graduate student symposiums, and a reviewer of fellowship applications. I joined the Center for Student Engagement team at Loyola University Chicago as a graduate intern in August 2021, and was promoted to a full time position as the Student Organizations & Engagement Coordinator in October 2021. I support 150+ student organizations through registration, recognition, training, activity request, intentional programming, and more. 

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Outside of my academic interest, I have been an engaged community member. I had held leadership position with Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) - a graduate student organization with a DEI mission - and Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC) - the governing body of graduate student under the Graduate School - at Loyola University Chicago. My contributions were recognized as both organizations received the Outstanding Graduate, Professional, & Adult Student Organization Award during my tenure as the co-chair and president in 2020 and 2021 respectively. I was honored as a finalist for the Outstanding Graduate, Professional, & Adult Student Leader Award in 2021. Previously, I took upon a leadership position at the departmental Graduate Student Association (GSA), served as a judge for the EDGE Award for Research Best Integrating Diversity and Inclusion at Loyola University Chicago's Graduate School Research Symposium in 2020, co-organized a graduate student-led group, Sociologists of Religion at Loyola (SRL), at Loyola University Chicago, and more. I have also interned at the local St. Ignatius Parish, where I helped prepare for their Renew My Church process.